- Safiu Kehinde
Julius Bokoru, the Special Assistant on Media and Public Affairs to former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, has faulted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) $14.8 millionfraud allegation against the ex-governor.
NPO Reported that Sylva was yesterday declared wanted by the EFCC over the alleged mismanagement of $14.8 million meant for construction of a refinery during his tenure as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.
The anti-graft agency had urged members of the public with information on his whereabout to contact any of its office across Nigeria.
Sylva’s inclusion in EFCC’ s wanted list had however sparked mixed reactions as the declaration came weeks after the ex-Baylesa governor’s Abuja house was raided by the Nigerian Army over alleged involvement in the reported coup plot against President Bola Tinubu.
Reacting to the development in a statement issued on his Facebook handle yesterday, Bokoru faulted the EFCC’s declaration of Slyva wanted.
In what he described as an orchestrated hostility, the aide held that no prior communication was extended to the ex-Baylesa governor before the declaration.
He held that the former Minister was a target of a coordinated and calculated political onslaught.
Bokoru maintained Sylva has not diverted a single dollar or betrayed the trust reposed in him by the Nigerians.
He held that the refinery project in question is a legitimate, transparent, and subject to due process and traceable documentation.
Bokoru however disclosed that the ex-governor will honour EFCC’s invitation as soon as he returns to Nigeria from his medical trip abroad.
The statement read; “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday took to social media to announce, quite unceremoniously, that it had declared Chief Timipre Sylva wanted.
“No formal communication was extended to him, no established protocol observed—only a sudden digital proclamation designed, it would seem, to inflame public sentiment and manufacture yet another episode of orchestrated hostility.
“It is, to say the least, curious that what was once whispered in corridors as a “coup matter” has now quietly metamorphosed into a financial allegation.
“The same shadowy forces that once sought to criminalise Sylva politically now appear to have reinvented themselves as fiscal crusaders.
“There must, undoubtedly, be an explanation for this cinematic transition—from rumour to reinvention, from one carefully scripted accusation to another.
“Chief Timipre Sylva remains, without equivocation, the target of a coordinated and calculated political onslaught.
“His recent travails bear an uncanny resemblance to the trials of Job in Holy Scripture—each ordeal arriving with near-mathematical precision, each accusation discredited only for another to appear.
“These are no coincidences; they are the deliberate machinations of those who dread Sylva’s enduring political relevance and moral resolve.
“For clarity, I have not been in direct communication with Chief Sylva.
“However, from available information and from prior official briefings, it is important to restate that Chief Sylva will, in line with his respect for lawful institutions and due process, honour the invitation of the EFCC once he concludes his ongoing medical check-up in the United Kingdom.
“At this stage, one might jest that only the Boys’ Brigade of Nigeria and the Man’O’War remain uninvited to this theatre of persecution.
“The desperation to sully Sylva’s name knows no restraint—its sponsors are zealous, its intentions transparent, and its malice unmistakable.
“Yet, let it be categorically stated: Chief Timipre Sylva has clean hands.
“He has not diverted a single dollar, nor has he betrayed the trust reposed in him by the Nigerian people.
“The refinery project in question is a legitimate, transparent, and verifiable undertaking—subject to due process and traceable documentation.
“To our friends, allies, and well-wishers: this, too, shall pass.
“Truth, though often delayed, remains immutable. It neither bows to propaganda nor perishes in the tumult of falsehood.
“Those engineering this relentless campaign of defamation will not prevail—for light, by its very nature, must always outshine darkness.”